Childhood

Summary: Just how did Naruto, a mere infant, helpless in his cradle, survive his childhood? Living in a village hell-bent on his utter destruction, how did Naruto live to see his first day at the Academy?

Naruto's earliest memory is one of fire. Fire and fear. His first memory is incomplete. It is shards and fragments; a flash of color here, a flare of feeling there. Throughout the entire ordeal there are feelings hate and rage and terrible, terrible pain. The hate and the rage are not his, but the pain is shared. Naruto doesn't understand this memory, though he somehow knows that it is not a dream. He also knows, somehow, deep down within his subconscious, that this memory is very important.

His first memory is vividly clear in its abstractedness. His next memory is just as clear: the sensation of flight. He is young. So young, in fact, that the blood on his stomach is not yet dry from when his umbilical cord was cut. The blood is staining the blanket that cocoons him in feelings of warmth and love. Naruto looks down, and the city of Konoha is flying by underneath him. The streets are nothing but gray lines intersecting the multi-color blurs that are houses. Awe-inspiring as the sight is to behold, Naruto looks up. Up at the blank mask of an ANBU black ops member. Naruto giggled, the sound starting in his tiny chest and bubbling up to form the laugh that only the innocent are able to make.

The mask glances down at Naruto, and then looks forward again. They are almost there. Seconds later Naruto is falling. He doesn't even have time to scream before he collides with the ground. His head explodes into stars of pain, and blood streams down his face from a gash on his forehead. An ear is torn almost straight through, hanging on by a thread of skin and tissue. One of his arms is twisted at an impossible angle behind his back, and the bone of his right shin is sticking through the skin and muscle. The pain is unbearable, and Naruto was screaming and crying and wailing almost immediately.

Then things took a turn for the better. White hot pain erupts from his stomach like a liquid inferno, more excruciating in its intensity than all the previous wounds could ever dream of being. The pain quickly spreads throughout Naruto's body, and all he can do is shriek and weep and howl as his fatal wounds begin to heal. It was not long until he fell, mercifully, into unconsciousness. In the last few seconds before the world faded into darkness, Naruto thinks he might have heard the sound of someone laughing.

The next few years of Naruto's life are blurred together. Images flit in and out of existence with no respect for time or any sense of order. In one flash of memory Naruto sees himself surrounded by a crowd of villagers focused solely on correcting the mistake made not so long ago. He recognizes the mask worn by the leader of the mob. Even though he cannot see the ANBU member's face, Naruto can sense his hatred, so powerful he can almost smell it. The only emotion more powerful than the man's hatred is his embarrassment at having accidentally let the atrocity live.

Naruto learns his first word just after his first birthday. That's pretty normal for a child. A little earlier than some, but that's to be expected when you hear the same word every day of the miserable existence that passes for your life. At only twelve months and two weeks of age, Naruto can already say "demon." Soon to follow are the words monster, devil, and evil. Those four words are literally pounded into his skull every chance the villagers get. One year later, Naruto's vocabulary has expanded to include fiend, die, worthless, and several curse words. He still does not know his own name.

In another segment of thought Naruto, no older than two, remembers a hand feeding him something out of a nearby dumpster. The hand is made of bright red fire, and there is no body attached. Naruto shrinks away from the hand, for it is hot and burns him when he touches it. But he knows he has to eat, and the hand is the only one willing to do it. Naruto forces himself to lean forward and eat the trash that passes for his meal. Though the skin on his mouth blackens and burns and his gums shrivel from the intense heat, Naruto attacks the food with a passion. It is the first meal he has had in days.

Only after the food is completely devoured does Naruto finally feel the pain from being burned. He does not cry out: he has learned that drawing attention to himself only brings pain. And then comes the healing. This time he cannot suppress the gasp that escapes from his lips. The healing is always far more painful the wounds.

Naruto remembers his first dream when he is three and a half. In his dream he awakes to find himself in the sewers. Not an unusual occurrence, for civilians often try to drown him there. These sewers are different, though. The sewers of Konoha are pristine. The sewer that Naruto finds himself in is dank, and there is mold growing on the walls. The sewers of Konoha have water constantly flowing through them. This sewer has only a few stagnant puddles in it. The sewers of Konoha have manholes every few blocks. The light shines though, letting Naruto know just where he needs to go to escape until the next time. This sewer has no manholes at all, leaving Naruto with a sudden feeling of claustrophobia and a shortness of breath.

He begins to run, frantically searching for a way out. Most children don't run until the age of four, at least. Naruto has been able to run since he was one and a half. In his frenzied search of the sewer he finds several dead ends. He doesn't even pause to wonder why there are dead ends in a sewer, he just turns around a keeps running.

Naruto eventually finds himself in a large room. There are large metal bars running from the ceiling to the floor, almost like a cage. Upon closer inspection, Naruto realizes that there is, in fact, a seal with the word, "savior" written on it. This confused Naruto a great deal. If the person behind those bars was a savior, why were they locked up?

Without warning two eyes appeared in the darkness within the cage. A huge, sinister smile was not far behind. The smile was taxed, though. Keeping Naruto alive all these years had been difficult. Though the demon had nigh to infinite charka, but it was just that: nigh to infinite. And over the course of three years it had been spent almost constantly. Be it fetching food for Naruto, scaring away the villagers, or healing Naruto in the aftermath of another attempted murder, the seconds were few and far in between when the Kyuubi was not expending his charka. Though the nine-tailed demon would never admit it, he couldn't keep this up for much longer.

"Take better care of yourself, whelp. I will not always be watching out for you."

Naruto was confused for but one moment before everything clicked into place. The red hand that few him. The mysterious disappearances of his would be assassins after he fell unconscious from pain. The reason his bones set themselves and his teeth re-grew. Naruto listened carefully to what his savior had said to him and vowed to try his hardest to stay out of trouble. When Naruto wakes up he'll think back on this event as a fanciful dream born from a desperate need for companionship. It isn't until later, when he is training with Jiraiya of the legendary sannin, that he learns otherwise.

And this is where the story truly begins.

A/N: If you couldn't tell, this will be a multi chapter story. My very first, just in case you were wondering. I'm excited about it. So much so that I've already started chapter one. I've got a lot of ideas that I want to put in this story. Please review. It really helps to motivate me. I absolutely will not withhold chapters just to get reviews, but it's easier to write when I know people appreciate it. Thank you for reading the beginning of Childhood, I hope you enjoyed it.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

Word Count for this chapter: 1,304

Word count including all the previous chapters: 1,304

Thank you in advance for reviewing

PIIR-Pierrot